EF Raises £9.4M from Silicon Valley VCs and DeepMind Cofounders

BY SHACK15 - 10 September, 2017

Startup factory Entrepreneur First has secured £9.4 million ($12.4 million) from a string of backers led by Silicon Valley VC firm Greylock Partners, and including the cofounders of Alphabet-owned AI powerhouse DeepMind.

Founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck in 2011, and based in London and Singapore, EF is pioneering a new type of technology incubator: rather than chaperoning existing companies, it snaps up bright individuals and nudges them, through funding and mentoring, to team up and create technology startups from scratch.

EF is now planning to use the fresh round of funding— backed, among others, by DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, Magic Pony’s Rob Bishop and Zehan Wang, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund— to expand its operations.

“We wanted to make EF the place where outlier talent comes together to build startups from scratch,” Bentinck said in a statement. “Over the last six years, we have created a new investment stage, acting as a company builder for the world’s most ambitious individuals. We have developed a unique and robust company building methodology that has produced more than 100 companies in London and Singapore.”

“Our companies work on frontier technologies, with nearly 70% of them working on a various forms of AI. We’re excited to work with Greylock and our other new investors and are delighted to welcome Reid Hoffman to our board. This funding round strengthens our access to the world’s best capital and provides our companies a pathway to Silicon Valley,” she added.